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The world's greatest walking trails

Choosing the world's best long-distance walks is a tough call, not least because there are so many - more than 1,100 in the UK alone, according to Britain's Long Distance Walkers Association - and no real consensus over what constitutes long. But for the purposes of this selection we've taken long to mean very long - at least 500 miles.

We're not pretending shorter hikes pale by comparison, or that length for its own sake is the be all and end all - or that you need to walk an entire trail to enjoy it. But there's something about an epic odyssey in the grandest landscapes, whether on foot, by road or sea, which stirs the blood in a way a shorter journey cannot.

Alongside a trail's grandeur we've chosen walks of unimpeachable natural beauty. Spain's Camino de Santiago, for one, might seem an omission, but the scenery en route is patchy - though we appreciate that people walk long-distance trails for different reasons, with pilgrimage an obvious motivation on the Camino.

In all but one case we have chosen trails that are officially marked, though it's worth noting that hikers are increasingly creating and sharing their own epic routes, which in time may become established classics. One such hiker is Jan Dudek, who in 2014 forged the 800-mile Greater Patagonian Trail, still the only genuinely long-distance trail in South America.

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By Tim Jepson

This article was first published on April 18, 2014, and updated in full on June 17, 2016